1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments of the present invention relate generally to an anti-fuse circuit and anti-fusing method, and more particularly to an anti-fuse circuit and anti-fusing method with an increased reliability.
2. Description of the Related Art
If even a single memory cell within a conventional semiconductor memory device functions improperly, the semiconductor memory device may be considered to be defective. However, if a relatively small number of memory cells are malfunctioning, it may not be efficient to treat the entire semiconductor memory device as being defective.
Therefore, one or more redundancy memory cells may be included within the semiconductor memory device. A redundancy memory cell may functionally take the place of a defective memory cell within the conventional semiconductor memory device. Accordingly, a semiconductor memory device with a redundancy memory cell employed in place of a defective memory cell may be treated as a non-defective or normal semiconductor memory device, thereby increasing a yield of semiconductor memory devices.
A repairing process using the redundancy memory cell may include replacing the defective memory cell with the redundancy memory cell by switching corresponding addresses. For example, if a defective memory cell is detected by a test after wafer processing, a corresponding address of the defective memory cell may be switched to an address of the redundancy memory cell. Therefore, signals addressed to an address of the defective memory cell may be transferred to the redundancy memory cell instead. Conventionally, anti-fuse circuits may be used so as to perform the above-described repairing process.